NDP told to repay controversial aide salaries
Posted Aug 12, 2014 01:06:14 PM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
OTTAWA – The committee that oversees House of Commons spending says the Opposition New Democrats owe a “significant” sum for salaries improperly paid to aides who worked out of satellite party offices in Quebec.
That sum will be on top of the $1.17 million in free mailing privileges the board ruled in June was wrongly used by NDP MPs to send almost 2 million mass partisan mailings to households in 26 ridings.
John Duncan, a Conservative MP and spokesman for the committee, says the latest dollar figure has yet to be determined, but he expects it to be a “significant number.”
Duncan says the rules are clear, and it’s also clear the NDP has broken those rules by using parliamentary resources to pay for offices that were not properly authorized.
He says Commons administrators are being asked to prepare various options to ensure the recovery of the funds.
